On the Ground Experience
Whether we’re working, stay-at-home or single parents, new high school teachers or veteran elementary school teachers, administrators, or grandparents pitching in, we are now sorting through - on the fly - what remote learning means for our kids.
Educational content must rightly be a focus, but we can't ignore the impact remote learning will also impose on the growth and development of our children from kinder all the way through high school.
We, the families and teachers, grapple daily with this reality. We’re talking with each other, gathering each other’s points of view and coming up with practical ways to address the issues we’re encountering. Those sidewalk conversations, or the 5-minute side-chats we’re having with our teachers at the close of our kids’ meetings with them, include vital input that need to be captured at the board level.
As someone on the ground, I can be that link - in real time - inspiring the responsiveness needed to solve the issues we’re facing.
Transparency
Transparency engenders trust. If we don’t trust that our finances are being allocated with our students and teachers as our North Star, or that we’re not being brought into key discussions around curriculum, remote schedules, health & safety measures, teacher salaries - then morale suffers, factions build and important voices and ideas are left unheard.
When a school board is transparent, they are forced to
listen to the response of their community and pivot accordingly.
Innovation with Compassion
My close friend and I were walking off our stress over the pending school year, and the need to think differently - and always through a lens of compassion - kept bubbling up.
Change is all around us, and it’s not stopping. We need creative, energetic minds in our boardroom partnering with our teachers and administrators to come up with student and family-friendly solutions to try.
Compassion is a powerful anchor to hold onto as we innovate. It keeps us focused on what matters most - the families and teachers who make up our school community.
Don't Just Take 'No' for an Answer
In a time when we need to rely on so many outside partners to help us achieve a new normal in which our school community can thrive, it’s critical that we motivate our team to never settle for what’s easy, but instead put in the hard work needed to maximize every revenue source and push for the best outcomes.
Cutting-edge Supplies & Resources
In a district surrounded by the top tech companies in the world, it is unacceptable for our schools to have anything but the BEST in tech resources.
We need to go hard on corporate partnership, sponsorship and streamline our corporate matching approach - and never look back.
